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Recommendation: Both men and women can improve their negotiation skills by knowing their market value. Sites such as www.salary.com and www.payscale.com help job seekers define a potential range of salaries for a particular job. By doing your research and presenting the business case for your requested salary, you improve your bargaining power and diffuse potential cultural biases.

3.) External vs. Internal Centers of Influence

Women are more likely to assume that hard work alone will be recognized and rewarded with a promotion and/or increased monetary compensation. They often wait for external factors and group consensus to determine their opportunities for advancement.

Men more frequently take matters into their own hands and believe they influence their opportunities and promotions. They are less inclined to stay in dead-end jobs and more likely to ask for a raise when they feel the situation warrants one. In the "Propensity to Initiate Negotiations" survey, researchers found that women were 45 percent less less likely to see the importance of asking for what they want.

Recommendation: Men and women can increase their opportunities for promotion by taking a proactive approach to their career development that includes reporting accomplishments regularly, taking on high-profile assignments, and developing influential networking relationships within the organization.

4.) Low vs. High Goal Setting

Women set more modest goals than men and they generally make concessions earlier in the negotiation process. As a result, women typically have lower salaries than men in similar positions.

A 2003 study by Riley, Babcock, and McGinn, "Gender as a Situational Phenomenon in Negotiation," revealed that men typically set goals for negotiation conversations that are 15 percent higher than women. By going into the negotiation process with higher goals, men can often receive better initial offers and additional leverage in the negotiation process. In subsequent negotiations, employers often assume that applicants with better compensation records are more capable than those who have been paid less.

Recommendation: Men and women should adopt a negotiation style that meets their individual needs, but both should incorporate ambitious targets into their negotiation strategy. When you negotiate your compensation package you are not just negotiating your starting salary, but you are directly

impacting every salary increase you receive from that point forward.